Physician Heal Thyself: Part 2 The Path's End
by Maria Patenaude
Summary: Mariella awakens in the Territories to find herself faced with her past: Jack Sawyer. When she meets Paul Morlock's Twinner, she is faced yet again with the choice between the Tower and her only love. Sequel to Opopanax Road.
1. Chapter 1

**[Disclaimer: All Kingdom Hospital/Dark Tower Saga characters and elements are the intellectual property of Stephen King and/or Lars Von Trier. Characters and elements from The Talisman and Black House also belong to Peter Straub.]**

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"Who do you suppose she's talking to when she mutters like that in her sleep?" Sophie asked the black man that stood beside her in the doorway. She was the queen and that was her bedchamber, but ever since her husband had pulled this stranger through into their world – _flipped_ her through – she hadn't set foot inside.

The pale young girl with the dark red hair was sobbing as she slept, murmuring pleas for help, saying the same name over and over: Paul. Sophie's husband laid his hand on the girl's forehead then, to calm her, and that was when she finally awoke. "Paul!" she cried out one last time before the man beside her swam into focus. Tall, yes; but blonde. Blue eyes instead of green. "Jack?" she blurted in surprise.

"I almost didn't pull you through," he said. "You fought me the whole way."

"Where am I?" she asked wearily, awake enough to wince at her own movie cliché.

"The Territories," he told her. "But you already knew that… You're all grown up," he added. "What were you doing in Maine?"

"I'm a doctor. _Was_ a doctor. Why do you want to know, anyway? You just walked away," Mariella said reproachfully, squinting in the lamplight.

"You've always been a doctor, Mariella Evans," he reminded her, "even when you were homeless in the alleyways of Los Angeles, you were never 'just a girl'. They were tracking you even then, you know."

"I saw Them. Nobody believed me," she agreed tiredly. Low Men in loud cars and yellow coats. Emissaries of the Crimson King.

"They were going to take you this morning," Jack told her. "In Derry."

"Paul wouldn't have let them," she replied rather naïvely.

"Who is this Paul?" Sophie spoke up from the doorway. Parkus, still standing beside her, shot her a stern look which she chose to ignore.

"The Good Man's adopted son," Ella said calmly, almost amused by the fear in Sophie's face. Of course she knew who she meant. Marten. Walter. Randall Flagg. Many names, but always that grin. That savage, leering grin.

"I know who you mean," Jack Sawyer admitted. "You really shouldn't talk about him, though. Or his father. Especially his father. It's too dangerous to talk about those things on this side."

"How did I get here? Where is my body? I died, right? Where is my body?" Mariella inquired in confusion.

"You came through a doorway," Parkus said, "and the doorway was Death. The body is a husk. You left it behind."

"Am I my Twinner?" she pressed.

Parkus looked grim. "Why do folks always come back to that? You're single-natured, like my friend Travelin' Jack. You came through. That's all that's important."

"I didn't want to be a Breaker," she said softly, looking to Jack. "Paul said he'd keep me safe. He did. He was good to me. Please don't make me turn against him, Jack."

"That choice wasn't up to you or us, Mary," he told her gently. "Try to rest now. We'll talk in the morning."

"Don't call me Mary," she murmured. "No one calls me that anymore." Just as suddenly as she had awoken, she drifted back to sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

It was Paul facing her in the early light, and for the first time in her life she was afraid of him. She scooted away from him across the bed, but he was faster and reached out to stop her.

"No, miss!" the young man whispered, alarmed. "Please. You'll wake everyone and I shouldn't be here. Please?"

She stared at him, frowning. He looked like Paul, surely; and he _sounded_ like Paul, though lacking the usual sarcasm; but there was something very different about him. The first thing she realized was that he was older; maybe a year or so younger than herself, while Paul remained an ageless fifteen. Also, most obviously, this boy's hands were _warm_.

"Who are you?" she asked him quietly.

"My name is Alex. Are you the Healer?" he inquired, a hint of sadness and desperation in his eyes.

"Yes, I am," she admitted. "Why do you ask?"

"My sister Luciole. Please," he persisted. "Can you help her?"

"I- I'll need to see her," she replied, moving to stand. "Can you take me to her?"

"Yes. We live close by." As she stood, he noticed that she swayed a bit on her feet. "Oh, I'm sorry! You're not well," he murmured, putting an arm gently about her waist. He had an accent; she'd noticed it when he said his sister's name. She thought it might be French, but not quite.

"I'm fine," she reassured him, searching for, and finding, a pair of shoes by the side of the bed. She realized that she was only wearing a nightgown, probably Sophie's, but decided that she really didn't care. "What's your full name, Alex?" she asked, hoping for a clue about his origin.

"Alexandre Moliere," he replied with a befuddled smile. "And yours?"

"Mary Ellen Evans," she told him.

"Should I call you Mary or Ellen?" he inquired.

"Mariella," she said.

He smiled. "A beautiful name."

"Thank you," she murmured. "We should go."

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"She was fine," Alex said to Mariella just outside his sister's room. "Then one morning she—" he made a shaking gesture with one hand, "and blood… She cried tears of blood."

"A seizure," Mariella murmured.

"I don't know the word," he admitted. "Can you help her?"

"We'll see," she said, pushing the door open cautiously. The girl had her back to her and was swaying slowly as she sat in a corner of the room. "Her name; Luciole; it means firefly, doesn't it."

"Yes," he agreed, smiling sadly.

As they moved toward the girl, Mariella was disconcerted. There was something familiar about the way she was rocking and staring at the wall. As soon as she saw her face, she knew. "Oh, no," she moaned, falling to her knees beside her. "Mona."

"What is wrong?" Alexandre asked, crouching beside her. "What is 'mona'?"

"Mona is the name of her Twinner," Mariella explained. "I can't help her."

"I don't understand," he said, confused.

"Her Twinner is a powerful Breaker," she said carefully. "Do you know what that means?"

"She has a 'jumelle' in your Where with a strong mind," he said. "Powers. Her Twinner is ill?"

Mariella nodded. "Her mind was ruined by a careless man. A man that had promised to heal her. The effects must have crossed over to Luciole. I'm sorry."

"If you heal my sister, you heal her Twinner, and then the 'Tour' falls; is that what you are saying?" he ventured.

"Yes," she agreed. "Do you still want me to heal her?"

He looked aghast. "No! Never; we would all die," he protested, then softened his tone. "It is cruel to leave her like this, yes, but it would be crueler to end the world… all the Worlds… out of love for just one person."

Mariella looked into his eyes, stunned, feeling almost like she'd been struck. Then she fainted, knowing nothing but the sound of his voice calling from far away… calling to her almost as if from another world.


	3. Chapter 3

"You didn't do your job, Ella," Paul's voice mocked her as she blinked in the dim fluorescent light of the Pain Room.

"This is a dream. I can't be here. You're not here," she protested, scuttling backward to get away from him, heedless of the dust clinging to her white lab coat as her bottom dragged across the floor. The dust wasn't real. The coat wasn't real. Even the floor wasn't real. She knew these things, but still she backed away from the boy she now feared.

"It doesn't matter whether or not it's real, Ella," Paul said, chuckling grimly. "This is your mind and I'm your conscience. Your job is to heal the Breaker, so do it already."

"You're not my conscience," she argued. "You're not _me_. I don't have to listen to you anymore."

This time he laughed aloud. "You're _weak_. Look at you, scurrying around on the floor like a rat. You need someone to tell you what to do or you can't even _dress_ straight. Why else would you have chosen a job with a uniform?"

"You're babbling, Paul," she said firmly. "It's not going to work. Shut up and go away." To her great relief, he did, disappearing with an audible pop.

"Mariella" a voice was calling to her, echoing through the vast halls of the Old Kingdom. "Please wake up, 'ma chérie'. Mariella?"

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His soft curls brushed her cheek as he spoke into her ear. This was right. This was real. Yes. 'Oui.' Yes. 'Merci.' Alexandre held her close, his skin warm against hers. How could he have sounded so far away when he was holding her in his arms?

"Don't go," he said.

She replied softly, "I'm here."

"Merde !" he exclaimed softly. "You frightened me."

"I'm about to frighten you even more," she warned him gently. "I must tell you about your Twinner."

"It is dim where he is," Alex murmured. "And there was screaming. It kept me awake at night, but now it's stopped."

"Do you know his name?" she ventured.

"No. I just call him the Dark One," he told her cautiously, as if afraid to say even that much.

"His name is Paul Morlock," she told him and he frowned. "What?"

"My grandfather was Paulo Molière. It is almost the same name," he explained.

"Your grandfather may have been his original Twinner," Mariella mused.

"Why didn't Grandfather die when he did?" he asked her, bewildered.

"I expected you to ask that the other way around," she admitted. "The truth is I don't know."

"Before, when you were afraid of me, you were really afraid of _him_, 'oui'?" he ventured, but it wasn't really a question.

"'Oui'," Mariella replied gravely. "'L'enfant Satanique'." Alex, surprisingly, started laughing. "What?" she pressed. Her accent couldn't possibly be _that_ bad…

"The look in your eyes when you called him a devil-boy," Alex said in response. "You fear him, but you admire him." Then, lowering his voice to a mere murmur, "You hate him, and yet you love him." Her sharp intake of breath told him all he needed to know.

"I thought I could save him," she said, her voice almost a sigh.

"He does not want to be saved," Alex reminded her.


End file.
